Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Tablo TV 2 Tuner Review

Angry Mo's - Tablo TV 2 Tuner Review                                           Verdict: Mo likes it!

  Welcome to my second blog review.  Last time I brought you the killer Roku 3...  designed to bring you the best video/audio entertainment in a simple user-friendly device.  For this week, I want to you all to be aware of the Tablo TV 2 Tuner.

I also promised to bring you movie reviews, but I haven't seen anything lately... so stay tuned!

What is it?

Its an over the air tuner (OTA) that brings you free local channels.  It is basically  a small black box that you hook up to an antenna.  The antenna than receives broadcast signals over the air and gives them to the Tablo TV.  The antenna you have to supply on your own, but don't worry its not as complex as you think.  Antennas can be outdoor (on your roof or side of your house), or they can be indoor.  For my setup I use an indoor antenna that I bought from Amazon.  See the antenna section below.  The Tablo TV then sends the broadcast to the internet via its Ethernet connection on the back to your local network (connect it to your router).  You can access the channels via web browser.  I bought it to go with my Roku 3 for live TV and even better.. it can function as a digital video recorder (DVR) to record shows when your not home!  So easy.. its craaazzzzzy!









What do you need? 

First you need the Tablo TV itself.  I bought mine from : http://www.tablotv.com/
Then you need an antenna.  See antenna section below to give you an example.
Lastly, you need a hard drive to record shows.  I had an old USB hard drive .. it works awesome.

Before you have the above, you should have a router and a working internet connection.


What channels do you get?

I get the following :  Local NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX.  Those are really the only channels I care about.  It really depends on your location.  PBS is also available.  The Tablo TV website noted above has an easy to use page where you can fill in your zip code and find out what stations you can get.  For my wife and I we like to watch : NBC Nightly News, Jeopardy, Hell's Kitchen and I can't miss my Judge Judy (I like it when she yells at people).

Is it easy to setup and use?

yes, yes, yes, yes!

Where did you get an antenna?

Like I said you can get an antenna for outdoor (I recommend this for people who know what they are doing), or indoor atenna (this is for people who don't know what they are doing). I do not know anything about outdoor stuff so I went with a simple indoor antenna.  I actually got it from Amazon.com.  See here:

 http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Extreme-Performance-Amplified-Antenna/dp/B00DIFIP06/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1398792120&sr=1-2&keywords=amazon+antenna

I have it taped to the inside of a window.  One end goes into an outlet to give it power, the other end goes into the Tablo TV.  Easy!



You mentioned Tablo TV can record shows?  how?

I have had it for several weeks now and it hasn't missed recording a single show.  And you know what?  The picture quality is fantastic.  All you need is a USB hard drive.  I had an old Western Digital Mybook, and it works perfectly.  You just plug it into the Tablo TV.  That is it for the hardware.  The Tablo then hooks up to your local network via your router.
Once its all set up you simply go to a web browser, scan for channels and your done.  Then you can setup recordings.



Devices that you can use with it?

You can use it with iPad, any laptop/PC via web browser.  For my setup as I already mentioned I use it with Roku.  I have several of them throughout the house.  There is a channel you can get for Tablo TV.  I am able to access live TV, recordings, and scheduled recordings.  Tablo TV plans on coming out with a 4 Tuner model.  Right now the 2 -Tuner means that you can be recording one channel and watch another one.  Or two people can watch two different channels.. you get the point.

















Can you cut the cord?

Yes !  I used to pay $70.00 a month for Dish Network.  Now I don't need it.  I get all the local channels, plus Roku gives me Netflix, Amazon VOD, Plex as I mentioned in last weeks blog (http://moangry.blogspot.com/2014/04/roku-3-review.html)

Can the wife use it?

Yes!  My wife knows how to use Tablo after I showed her how to use it on the Roku.  Simple as scrolling some icons.  Roku is the most wife friendly device.  It is also kid friendly.

Pros:
Nice looking solid made device (much better made than the Simple TV version 2)
Easy to set up
Excellent picture quality
Has not missed a single recording
Cost effective
Backed  up by a good company which is making regular updates

Cons:
No closed captioning
Can't resume playback after starting a video from your recordings (I believe Tablo is working on this)

Verdict: BUY IT!

Thanks for joining this week, next week we will review the Nvidia Shield, a portable gaming gizmo.

If you liked this review and would like to help support further Angry Mo's Reviews please donate at the following (is appreciated tons!):



4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the write up. I am about to purchase the Tablo myself and cut off DirecTV.

    Question, I didn't think the Roku had to be wired directly to your router. I thought the Tablo could also communicate wirelessly to Ipad, Roku, etc. without connecting directly to router.

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  2. Yes you are correct I forgot to mention that Tablo TV can also be hooked up wirelessly. Thanks for mentioning that, and thanks for reading my blog.

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  3. I love my TabloTV! I have a 4 tuner unit since it first came out and it paid for itself already with the $107 a month I am saving by getting rid of DishTV.

    I don't know why Don had problems, but I purchased a new 2TB Seagate Slim line as recommended and it's not missed a recording since. I also record a lot of primetime programming, almost as much as my Hopper use to do.
    I can't believe the amount of shows on during the day which I never would have known about if it wasn't for the TabloTV guide (2 weeks of guide data).

    Since your blog post, the ROKU app has been updated, (they listen to user suggestions) and you can now watch a show from either where you last watched up to or from the beginning. And that feature works over any of your devices or location, that was a big improvement.
    You can also do a quick rewind and have the closed captions automatically show you what was said for about 30 seconds to make it easier to understand something you might have missed.
    All in all, if they never updated another thing I would be extremely satisfied with my TabloTV the way it is now. It's great to finally have a way to record free TV again since the change over to digital and HDTV broadcasts.

    I found your post because I was googling to see about a new Amazon app TabloTV just released for the kindle's and FireTV so I wanted to comment about the ROKU app being updated for your followers.
    Thanks!

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  4. This information has many things to read and I am glad to read more impressive information about it. Thank you so much for the share..You can visit this site. indoor antennas

    ReplyDelete